Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

The Last Days of Night

From Graham Moore, the Academy
Award–winning screenwriter ofThe
Imitation GameandNew York Timesbestselling author ofThe Sherlockian,comes a page-turning historical
thriller—a novel based on actual events—about the nature of genius, the cost of
ambition, and the battle to electrify America.

New York, 1888. The miracle of electric light is
in its infancy, and a young untested lawyer named Paul Cravath, fresh out of
Columbia Law School, takes a case that seems impossible to win. Paul’s client,
George Westinghouse, has been sued by Thomas Edison over a billion-dollar
question: who invented the light bulb and holds the right to power the country?The case affords Paul entry to the heady world
of high society—the glittering parties in Gramercy Park mansions, and the more
insidious dealings done behind closed doors. The task facing Paul is beyond
daunting. Edison is a wily, dangerous opponent with vast resources at his
disposal—private spies, newspapers in his pocket, and the backing of J. P.
Morgan himself. Yet this unknown attorney shares with his famous adversary a
compulsion to win at all costs. How will he do it? In obsessive pursuit of
victory, Paul crosses paths with Nikola Tesla, an eccentric, brilliant inventor
who may hold the key to defeating Edison, and with Agnes Huntington, a
beautiful opera singer who proves to be a flawless performer on stage and off.
As Paul takes greater and greater risks, he’ll find that everyone in his path
is playing their own game, and no one is quite who they seem.

ABOUT
THE AUTHOR

Graham Moore is a New
York Times bestselling novelist and Oscar-winning screenwriter. His
screenplay for The Imitation Game won the Oscar in 2015. His
first novel, The Sherlockian, was published in 16 countries and
translated into 13 languages. Graham was born in Chicago and now lives in Los
Angeles.